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I have slowly been getting back into the swing of things after camping for the last couple of days. As I mentioned in this post I really wanted to try to continue eating healthy even while on vacation camping. Eating healthy to change my lifestyle is a long-term goal that I am slowly working toward. I didn’t want to let myself fall while on vacation.

I feel that I actually did pretty well. I planned meals and snacks and took plenty of pictures of everything to document what we ate for a special What I Ate Wednesday Camping Edition!

I did have time set aside to plan healthy meals and snacks for Hailey and I to take camping. Plans changed a bit when Hailey became sick and came back home early from vacation with her dad. A trip to the doctor, some wonderful TLC from my mom, and Hailey was all better and ready to go!

Grandma and Hailey

I want to pat myself on the back here. Even though I ran short of time I still bought lots of fruits and veggies to bring along.

Healthy snacking for the car ride

We stopped at the grocery store right before leaving, and I chopped everything up at the campsite. Yay me for not giving into “no time” and just buying processed junk.

I bought broccoli, cauliflower, celery, and carrots to cut up and eat raw with my homemade veggie dip. Well, actually the recipe is from my Grandma Fran but I healthified (if healthified isn’t a word it is now!) it by using plain greek yogurt. I love watching Hailey eat all of these veggies! It makes me feel so good knowing that good stuff is getting into her body.

I brought along chicken meat that I had mixed with taco seasoning. It was leftover chicken that I froze purposely to bring along camping to make chicken tacos.

I simply heated up the taco chicken in a tin foil pack over the fire, chopped up all of the toppings, and we ate! Avocado is my new favorite taco topping!

While I did eat some unhealthy things like hot dogs, sunchips, puppy chow, chocolate, and soda, I really feel that I ate a ton better than what I would call “normal” for camping. I am super proud of myself and feeling great.

Even though it was super hot, we did manage to do a little bit of walking. We also spent some time down on the beach.

The freezing cold lake didn’t bother Hailey much, but Jackson did not like it!

A typical meal for camping are “pizza things.” I looked for a healthier way to make these and this is what I came up with.

I used this as the pizza crust

I used fresh mozzerella cheese but didn’t have time to shred it. I tore it into chunks and it didn’t melt as well as it would have if it would have been shredded. Still tasted awesome and Hailey loved them too!

I also had various healthy snacks for campfire time. The munchies always seem to hit hard while sitting around the relaxing fire doing nothing. I wanted to be prepared!

We also enjoyed delicious fresh grilled corn on the cob. This turned out fantastic!

All in all it was a nutritionally aware camping trip. No rain, nice weather, lots of fun! And I am super proud of myself for the way I ate!

I have been working a lot of extra hours at my part time job lately. This weekend will be the third weekend in a row of working there plus every day at the bank all day all week long. I am starting to feel pooped out. But, next week Hailey, Jackson, and I are going camping with the rest of the fam so a little r and r is right around the corner.

Last week I headed to my friend Jackielyn’s tattoo studio, Eye-Candy Ink to get some of my tattoos touched up.

Her shop is not your typical tattoo shop. It is an art gallery, a pottery gallery, and a tattoo shop all in one. The decor is retro, classy, and comfortable. Plus Jackie is a friend of mine so that makes the experience even better!

Jackielyn

waiting area

She touched up the stars on my ankle, plus added a few more.

And she touched up the orchid on my floral sidepiece.

I also had the opportunity to reconnect with some girlfriends I hadn’t seen for about a year and a half. I met them all through a previous relationship and when that ended so did all of the friendships unfortunately. I mett up with the girls and we had so much fun! I really am hoping to stay in touch with them all. I missed them so much!

Carrie, Deanna, Me, and Dewey (Kerri)

I have been doing some healthy meal and snack planning for camping next week. For probably the first time ever my sister, my mom, and I are all eating healthy at the same time! We all struggle with the ups and downs of the food rollar coaster and it seems that we are never all on the up side together. Right now we are, so I want to make sure to plan some healthy real food meals and real food snacks.

I had a few hours off of work this afternoon since I worked last Saturday so I took advantage of the free time and went to a new to me health store that a friend told me about called The Red Raddish.

It was very cute and quaint! They really didn’t have too much more to offer than what I am able to purchase in the organic section of my grocery store, plus it was kind of a drive.

All in all I have been doing good distracting myself and keeping busy while Hailey is gone. Only 4 more days to go till she comes home!! I know she is having a blast, but I miss her!

Ahhhh I am feeling good right now. I have been sooo down in the dumps for the past few weeks. I am struggling to pull myself out.

Today when I came home from work I found a clean house, lawn mowed, and supper in the oven. My summer babysitter Abby rocks. Totally bummed she is moving. : (

She helped Hailey and Liz (Liz is Abby’s sister who happens to be one of Hailey’s best friends) have a lemonade stand today. The girls made about $25 bucks!!

Liz and Hailey selling lemonade, brownies, and bookmarks!

After dinner (which Hailey and I actually sat at the kitchen table to eat instead of the TV which unfortunately has been the norm the past few weeks) I whipped up a batch of these awesome muffins. They have become a staple in our house. I follow this recipe but use muffin tins and also add chocolate chips! They are healthy, so filling, Hailey LOVES them, and they freeze really well.

Banana chocolate chip muffins

Then I went outside and checked on my plants, flowers, and garden. Thankfully they were all looking pretty good considering I have been neglecting them lately.

sweet peas

tomatoes!

garden – please excuse my weeds!

I took a few pictures and now am snuggling on the couch with Hailey while typing this up.

I am hoping this happier feeling continues tomorrow. I am going to go into tomorrow with the attitude of happiess and try not to focus on how awful the last few weeks have been. No sense dwelling in what was – focus on moving forward!

These past few days were fabulous! I got the opportunity (thanks to my ex-husband!) to vacation up north at his timeshare for a few days with Hailey. My ex had gotten an extra week and kindly offered to split it with me! So, after Hailey’s dance recital on Sunday the two of us made the 3 hour drive up north.

I had not been there for about 5 years and it had not changed a bit!

Everything was just as beautiful as I remembered it. The picture above shows the condo unit overlooking the lake. The building has 10 condos with a pool and a hot tub in the middle. They also have 3 houses and we stayed in this one pictured below.

I always enjoyed coming up here for vacation and every year when I was still married. Hailey is lucky enough to spend 2 weeks every summer here with her dads side of the family. A few months ago she told me that she wanted me to come up with her. I said “I thought that was your special place with your daddy.” She said she really wanted me to come up! Luckily enough a few weeks later the opportunity fell into my lap! Thanks to a great relationship with my ex, I got to spend a glorious 3 nights and 4 days experiencing a little piece of heaven with just Hailey.

The view from our living room

ready for the beach!

We had such a wonderful mother/daughter vacation. We laughed so much! We read, we snuggled, we watched movies and ate great food.

Hot tub time!

We spent a lot of time at the beach, in the pool and in the hot tub. Hailey built a huge fort for us in the living room one day and we both played in it.

ba baam!

hanging out in the fort!

Chocolate covered strawberries and marshmallows

fondu fun!

chocolate milk cheers!

It was so nice to be out in the middle of nowhere enjoying beautiful views and fabulous weather.

aaaahhhhh

We were so deep in the middle of nowhere that we had no cell phone reception or internet connection. It was so nice to truly unplug from the distractions of everyday life and just be there together enjoying a little piece of heaven.

our view when we woke up from our nap,

on our deck

We had such a wonderful time. Hailey’s dad came up Wednesday afternoon for the rest of the week with her and I made the 3 hour drive home.

I am so happy to have had this opportunity to spend all of this one on one time with my daughter at such a beautiful place.

One of our favorite meals is breakfast for supper! Something about having a delicious breakfast in the evening just seems fun! One of Hailey’s favorites is pancakes. Normally I buy the yellow bottle of bisquick pancakes that you just add the water and shake. In my quest for a healthier lifestyle I searched out a way to make some delicious pancakes for us that were a bit healthier.

I searched one of my favorite blogs for a recipe and found one that I knew I could handle.

Again the recipe called for whole wheat flour but I wasn’t nervous this time since these turned out so fabulous! I followed the recipe except I didn’t put the banana in.

Unfortunately we didn’t have any fresh fruit to top the pancakes with, but we did have quite a few other options to choose from.

My favorite topping was the honey apple butter from Trader Joe’s. Hailey tried a few things but went back to her original favorite syrup.

So, this was another easy recipe that was a healthier choice – – seriously if I can make pancakes from scratch anyone can!

Hailey has a dance competition coming up this weekend. We hadn’t tried the costume on since we got it a few months ago but since she had pictures two weeks ago I brought it out. The straps were a bit long, so I just pinned them for pictures knowing you wouldn’t see the back. However with the competition coming up this weekend I knew I needed to get it sewn stat!

At the pictures I told her dance instructor that I would have the costume sewn in time for the competition. She kinda laughed when I told her I was going to have someone do it. She says, “Jaime, you can do it yourself!”

I might have mentioned previously that I am not a sewer. I learned to sew from my Grandma Betty (Grannie B!) when I was little, but never did any sewing as an adult. I still have the sewing basket we made together when I was a kid!

I decided that it couldn’t be that hard to sew the straps and decided I would give it a whirl. I hauled out my sewing basket and told Hailey I was going to fix the straps on her costume myself.

Normally Hailey is supportive and positive and like me enjoys trying new things. So when she said the darndest thing it kinda blew me away. Hailey has asked me once or twice in the past to fix something sewing related and I told her I couldn’t because I didn’t know how to sew. She knows a lady I work with at the bank (Bobbye) sews so a couple of times we have asked her to fix something for us.

After I had proudly announced to Hailey that I was going to do the sewing, she looks at me, tilts her head to the side shaking it ever so slightly and says “Mom, just have Bobbye fix it.” I still laugh and shake my head when I think of how her face looked and how matter of fact she sounded.

I decided to ask Bobbye if she would help me with the adjustment. I brought my sewing kit and the costume to work so she could look at it and asess the situation.

Bringing out this sewing basket and going through it flooded me with memories from my childhood with Grannie B.

After we looked at the straps Bobbye said it would be best for her to just throw it on her machine at home to stich it up.

So even though I didn’t actually sew the costume myself, I was able to get someone to help us out, chuckle at my daughter’s unfiltered thoughts, and take a walk down memory lane with my sewing kit from Grannie B.

Another WIAW post! I am having fun taking all these pictures of food for these posts!

For breakfast I had a yummy breakfast cookie. Today I formed them into cute little balls to change it up a bit.

I dug out this old guy to make a home made sugar free vanilla latte. This baby is probably 10 years old and it still works like a charm!

Lunch was some cold peel and eat shrimp, some yellow cherry tomatoes, and some baked chips that were not laden with chemicals!

Simple snacks this afternoon – Larabar in peanut butter and jelly and an apple.

For dinner I got a little creative – – for me anyway! I made stir fry! I looked at different recipes and sort of winged it.I used steak and I marinated it in a mixture of soy sauce, garlic, and honey all day.

I browned the steak and removed it from the pan. I picked out veggies that I knew Hailey would like and threw those in the pan. Broccoli, cauliflower, and green beans.

Let the veggies cook for a bit and then threw the steak chunks back in and let it all simmer a bit longer.

When it was all done sizzling away I served it over a bed of brown rice.

I thought it tasted delicious but the real question was what would Hailey think?